A BUSINESSMAN who targeted an 11-year-old Midland girl for sex after grooming her on an internet chat site has been put behind bars for three years.

Judge Michael Challinor told married father-of-two Timothy Parfitt he was a "dangerous and manipulative paedophile" and he ruled he would be a risk to children without treatment.

"You and others like you must understand that if you use the internet to groom young children for sexual purposes you can expect little mercy from the courts," said the judge.

Parfitt met up with the schoolgirl in the Walsall area but he was thwarted by the prompt action of her mother who, in a phone call, told her to get out of his car.

The judge gave the mother a #100 reward from public funds as he made it clear her "timely intervention" saved her daughter from "damage" at the hands of Parfitt.

But the mother said after the case, at Wolverhampton Crown Court, that the money would be going to charity as she made a plea to all parents to guard their children from perverts on the internet.

"I am so glad I was able to intervene and stop Parfitt," she said. "I don't want a penny of this money. I just want other children to be protected from perverts. All mothers should monitor how their children use these chatrooms."

The judge told Parfitt: "I am satisfied you groomed this girl and you lured her into your car. I am satisfied it was your intention to engage in some form of sexual activity if you found her attractive."

He said Parfitt, whose firm makes water slides for leisure parks, was now a "broken man" and the case had left a great deal of wreckage in his life but he made it clear children had to be protected.

Parfitt, of Gilbert Drive, East Dean, Sussex, had denied abduction and sexual grooming but he was convicted on both charges by a jury at the end of his eight-day trial.

In his defence he maintained he was acting as an "agony uncle" and it was his intention to help the schoolgirl with her problems after she told him she was considering running away from home.

Parfiff was ordered by the judge to register as a sex offender for life, barred from ever working with children and told he cannot have any unsupervised contact with anyone under 18 years of age.